Release Radar: January 2023
At the end of each month, Afterglow presents a staff-picked list of new albums and singles that left a lasting impression on our ears.
Written by Afterglow Staffers
Here are our favorite albums and singles released during January 2023. For more reviews of recent releases, check out our album review page!
Photos courtesy of Imogen Loop, Kate Killet, and Colette Aboussouan
Shiny Singles We Loved This Month
“My Limits” by Huntly
Experimental electro-pop newcomers, Huntly, set boundaries while auto-crooning in their latest single “My Limits.” In Charli XC-esque style of production vocals, the Australian duo lament over their tiredness with relationships, careers, and life in this atmospheric four-minute track. — Adam Cherian
“Emily I’m Sorry” by boygenius
The long awaited reunion of the iconic indie star trio consisting of Phoebe Bridgers, Lucy Dacus, and Julien Baker comes with the release of three new singles to tease their upcoming album, the record. Standout “Emily I’m Sorry” is a reflective ballad in which Bridgers apologizes to her past lover for the hurt she caused. This song gives fans a peek into the heartbreak they’re about to experience on their looming record release. — Adam Cherian
“Princess Diana” by Ice Spice
Rap newcomer, music’s Mother Theresa, and hip-hop’s Jesus incarnate Ice Spice, takes a note out of Lil Nas X’s school of PR and embraces the memes on new track “Princess Diana.” The title of the track refers to the trend of comparing Spice to the late Princess of Wales. On this short classic Bronx-sounding rap track, the rapstress talks her shit, and does it with the grace of the People’s Princess. — Adam Cherian
“Joiner” by Blondshell
LA-based singer-songwriter Sabrina Teitelbaum, aka Blondshell, loses herself amid star-crossed love in latest single “Joiner.” Accompanied by steady guitar strums and nostalgic, Cocteau Twins-esque feedback, she sings about her and her love interest being “Two people from the bottom of the bin.” — C.S. Harper
“ME FIRST” by Kari Faux
After releasing her last album in 2020, Arkansas songstress Kari Faux is back with her first single of 2023. Over a bouncy beat and mellow guitar arpeggios, the R&B starlet sings about putting herself first before her man. — C.S. Harper
“I Play My Bass Loud” by Gina Birch
Gina Birch, of ‘70s post-punk The Raincoats fame, follows up “Feminist Song” and “Wish I Was You” with a resounding bassline in her third single, “I Play My Bass Loud.” A deceptively simple, yet joyful track sets the stage for the surprising, yet entirely welcome solo career of a female post-punk icon with a direct question: “Are you ready for this?” — Wonjune Lee
“Diet Culture” by Brye
Indie-pop darling Brye unapologetically challenges fatphobic rhetoric in her bubby new single, “Diet Culture.” Over airy percussion and playful strings, Brye marries tender vocals with aggravated lyricism. She interlaces straightforward, impactful affirmations towards the end of the unapologetically honest track — starting off with, “There’s nothing wrong with my body / ‘Fat’ is not a dirty word” — making this a perfect full-body-mirror-hype-up song for body positive beauties. — Heather Stewart
Teeth by Die Spitz
Image courtesy of poop butt records
You would never expect the resurgence of femme-powered rock to emerge from a grimy basement in UT’s West Campus, but these scream queens are here to prove they got guts. After crashing onto the Austin rock scene in 2022 with their EP, The Revenge of Evangeline, Die Spitz came out swinging early in 2023 with their debut album, Teeth, a seven-track collection exploring their inner rage against the ever-exhaustive patriarchy. Demonstrating a more refined — well, as refined as barking can be — sound, merging punk and metal influences, the four-piece's sound has matured quickly despite releasing their debut EP only six months prior. Teeth's theme is the same as any good album — a past relationship gone poorly — featuring a perfect concoction of angsty and raw lyrics about a toxic relationship and the power of revenge. Opening song "Grip" drips with slow, swinging swagger before exploding with rotating vocals and gritty screams of Ava Schrobilgen, Chloe Andrews, and Ellie Livingston and the pounding basslines of Kate Halter. Third track, "Groping Dogs Gushing Blood," oozes with loathing for a relationship gone wrong as the lead singer condescends, "I've been waiting for this moment / He thinks I'm mild / Just watch my face twist into / The ugliest of smiles." The fourth track, "Chug," gives a Hole-inspired sound with Die Spitz edge ranting about the same lover yet still desiring them: "Sell my space but keep my face / In the back of your mind." Far from just another riot grrrl copycat, the talent and rotating cast at the mic sets the stage for these true renaissance women to leave behind the grime of their humble beginnings to bust through the rock scene with their unique perspective. — Olivia Abercrombie
mole by poolblood
Image courtesy of Next Door Records
Toronto native Maryam Said, better known by the stage name poolblood, breaks free from their humble Bandcamp beginnings in their ambitious debut album mole. From lo-fi guitar plucks in the album's opener "<3" to electric guitar mimics of TV static in "null," mole is, at its heart, an experimentation with sound. Sinister strings haunt the instrumental track "beam," while slightly dissonant horns and shrill vocals make for a unique symphony in "wfy." Poolblood's lyrics reflect the varying sound by encapsulating the complexity of being hopelessly alone after being madly in love. “My little room” gives a cozy, down-to-earth feeling through comforting strings as if listeners are in the singer-songwriter's own room, but the lyrics portray something much more complex. "Time is an illusion keeping me in place / Best kept under my skin," they sing, succumbing to their place in the universe while also finding comfort in it. The album tracks "trying to navigate taking care of myself" after unfortunate relationships and coming to terms with their non-binary identity. The singer tackles regret and reeling throughout the album and closes with a self-sufficient sentiment, urging listeners to love the skin they are in just as they learned to do through making mole. The raw lyrics and sonic diversity in mole marks poolblood as a quiet, queer force on the indie rock scene. — Janie Bickerton
Gigi’s Recovery by The Murder Capital
Image courtesy of Human Seasons Records
Dublin-based band and haters of the label “post-punk,” The Murder Capital, took time to recover and must tell everyone about it. The quintet cries for help on sophomore album Gigi’s Recovery, a classic art-rock record showcasing life's ups and downs in full force. Vocalist James McGovern is accompanied by guitarists Damien Tuit and Cathal Roper, along with Gabriel Pascal Blake on bass and Diarmuid Brennan on drums to create a post-grunge, soft-rock record. Themes of existentialism, loss, love, and strength are wrought throughout the album. Opener “Existence” is a brief poetic track where the singer feels themselves dip into a pool of depression with the opening lyrics, “Strange feeling I’m dealing with / I can’t admit it I’d lose my grip.” The inevitable upswing following the established cadence of rock bottom surfaces in “Ethel,” where the record takes a turn for the better. The singer reflects on a past relationship, and of all the plans that they had together that inevitably faltered. Bittersweet, McGovern hits the listener with the line “I always wanted it to be like this for us / Having our first kid / Name her Ethel.”
The resolution of this arc comes with the album’s title track, which chronicles the moving on from a failed relationship. The ending repeating “Gigi, you never left me” indicates a healthy view of recovering from a breakup. Immediately after is the final track, “Exist,” which is a cheeky callback to the first track, in which the singer feels the strength to come out of recovery. This record is a journey of the struggles of a broken man attempting to piece his life together Gigi’s Recovery is a relatable piece of work with beautiful shoegaze-inspired production and classic soft-rock sound. — Adam Cherian
Cyclamen by Núria Graham
Image courtesy of Primavera Labels
Released on January 19, Núria Graham’s Cyclamen is the kind of calmness needed for the start of the spring semester. The soft background choir and delicate string instruments prepare us for an exploration of life’s brutality and beauty in the ethereal album opener “Procida I.” This is followed by “The Catalyst,” where piano keys accompany her tranquil and undisturbed voice through an introspection of her personal memories. She tells the story of wanting to throw a party and her attempt to decipher whether she misses a person or the stories they used to tell, as she announces, “Yes, I am the catalyst,” possibly alluding to the cause of the unnamed subject’s departure. The third song of the album, “Yes It’s Me, The Goldfish,” was released as a single in September 2022. The track’s jazzy opening contrasts with the harshness of the lyrics that compare life to a goldfish entrapped in a fishbowl and view life in a negative light, stating that it “wouldn’t make a difference if (…) I finish a chapter of this stupid book.” She even compares her mundane existence to an “old man’s girlfriend (…) [who was] on fire / She was in an accident (…) how fucked up is that.” She ends this introspective journey with “Procida II,” bringing us back to the album’s introductory journey of her personal memories in her time back in Procida. This time, opening with chiming church bells, she places us on the island of Italy and concludes this album with the sounds of the gentle string instruments. The delicate melodies, along with her graceful voice and thoughtful lyrics, take us on an odyssey of her personal memories and brooding thoughts. — Natalie Weinberg